The Revenant is based in Montana (but filmed basically everywhere else)
This weekend is the Oscars, and “The Revenant” along with its star Leonardo DiCaprio are poised to bring home some serious awards.
On the one hand, Montanans should be excited. Mountain man Hugh Glass (the main character) spent a good chunk of his life in Montana, the film is based on when he staggered towards vengeance right through our own backyard, and the movie is based on a book written by former Montanan Michael Punke.
On the other hand, you’d never know any of this from watching the actual movie.
While the real-life story of “The Revenant” took place in the Dakotas and eastern Montana, the movie was filmed everywhere but. Alberta, British Columbia…Argentina! So if the sweeping mountain vistas and “Missouri River” scenery surrounding Leo DiCaprio looked a bit fishy to you, kudos to your B.S. detector.
Despite racking up twelve Oscar nominations, including Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography, all that movie magic could not fool a trained Montanan’s eye. Alberta’s badlands and bluffs are believable enough as a stand-in for the prairie of Missouri River country. But as Glass trails the object of his revenge up the Yellowstone River, the backdrop soars into jagged peaks and heavy snows that might seem more at home in the Alps. Hard to believe, since the climax of the story never strayed west of present-day Billings, near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Bighorn Rivers.
not billings (Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox)
The only cameo of the Big Sky state in the film is a brief scene shot near Libby. Actually, Montana snuck in the back door by way of its breathtaking scenery, albeit in the wrong part of the state. Location scouts reportedly searched all over North America for an epic river backdrop, finally settling on Kootenai Falls near Libby.
Montana! Kootenai Falls (image courtesy of 20th Century Fox)
Website Atlas of Wonders has a very comprehensive list of filming locations, saying of the single Montana scene where DiCaprio is spin-cycled over a waterfall, “The dramatic sequence filmed here took ten days to complete.
Impressive minds will remember this is the same location as the 1994 film “The River Wild” with Meryl Streep. The scene is an impressive nod to Montana’s natural beauty, but the filmmakers still couldn’t resist inserting CGI snow and ice, as the scene was shot in July.
While it may not be a cinematic Montana showpiece like “Legends of the Fall” or “A River Runs Through It”, our ties to “The Revenant” still make it a piece of state history to be proud of. And hopefully in the future, Hollywood will get it right and let Montana steal as many scenes as she wants. Because that bitch is a star.
Video of Hollywood being asked to film in Montana. https://t.co/dtpefUaPOO
— Bear Tycoon (@BearTycoon) February 24, 2016
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Cover image via 20th Century Fox
About the Author
Aught Five Her spurs are of silver, her pony is gray. Riding the ranges at https://twitter.com/edoornek
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